Thoughts: Welcome readers to the anime blog Animekritik, where you can find several episodic-themed posts on anime, manga and a bit of translation work on The Rabbit Reich and red Rabbits. So just how does Animekritik write his posts? Well each and every post is filled with his thoughts on the episode instead of a play by play of events in the episode; I enjoyed his style of reviewing anime versus my own, but hey this style might not be for everyone out there. I also enjoyed his final reviews of Persona 4! They were kind of funny and felt more like a conversation rather than a straight up review. You can also read through a few NSFW reviews of manga and a few editorial styled posts. So take a few minutes and read through Animekritik’s blog.

Design wise Animekritik uses wordpress with a black background and the usual side panel things on the right hand side, complete with links to his sister sites. I didn’t mind his layout too much, but of course I have seen lots of wordpress blogs while doing this so it does become a bit repetitive. Still, Animekritik does catch my eyes with his banners and fun screen-caps especially the comic speech bubbles on his campaign post.

Thoughts: I hope you like Tooru from A Channel, because you’re going to be seeing a lot of her on NewAnimeThursday. She graces the site banners, the about page, and even miscellaneous posts. BeldenOtaku even drew his own Toori banner for the site, and has a section of the site specifically for showing off his fanart. As long as you don’t have an unreasonable hatred for Tooru, the layout should do it for you. I like dark backgrounds with light-coloured texts because it feels less like I’m staring directly into a white hot sun while trying to read.

Most of the posts are short, episodic posts about whatever anime BeldenOtaku wants to blog. Despite being short already, most of the post consists of a summary with maybe only a paragraph or two of original thought or an opinion of any sort. That mixed with the fact that there’s never an episode number in the title make me think that the format for these posts should be changed. Even final reviews are shallow and barely long enough to cover a series with even a slight smount of depth. BeldenOtaku’s not a bad writer, but the things he makes some questionable choices in terms of what he actually writes about…

Thoughts: Next on the list is The Manga Critic. It’s all done by Kate and she reviews manga (…obviously). The reviews are done exactly like you’d expect a novel to be reviewed… only they’re reviewing manga. What I browsed was written clearly and to the point about things. Overall, the articles managed to balance the story summary with why people should or shouldn’t read a particular manga. She also has the site divided into several different categories, but the one that stood out to me was her Hall of Shame, which was actually extremely interesting since it went a bit more into the mechanics of what makes a manga readable or not. It was surprisingly thorough.

Design-wise the site is… well, boring. Stuff can be hard to find as well unless you happen to know the name of what you’re looking for. Fortunately, if you’re looking for recommendations, those are pretty easy to find.

Thoughts: Alright, next is Prede’s Anime Reviews, which takes a bit of a left turn away from the usual aniblogging trend of focusing on the currently airing shows. Prede blogs about the rare gems of anime that people may have missed. Most of them are old OVAs or series from the 80’s, so you’re bound to find a bunch of anime you haven’t even heard of before. His reviews are very thorough, so you’ll know exactly what you’re getting into before you watch it.
There’s also a fun segment called “Who is that and why should I care?”, which focuses on obscure characters instead of anime.

Seeing as this is a solo blog and finding new things takes time, you’ll have to wait around 2 weeks or so for every new post. Until then, you can hang around Prede’s rather nice-looking site and try to find some series to broaden your otaku horizons.

Thoughts: Next up we visit the anime blog Forty-Four Fennecs, an anime blog owned by Anya. So, what does Anya enjoy writing about? Precure, Touhou music guides, gundam model kit guides and general posts on anime! Her writing style follows the events of the episode in normal paragraph form with a few caps from the episode thrown in. Anya also has a few episodic posts with screen shots from the episode with subtitles to make comments on almost like a conversation; that style does make me grin and laugh! Other than Smile Precure posts, you can read her thoughts on Jormungand and my favorite posts of hers will always be the Katawa Shoujo review and several posts on The Idolm@ster.

Design wise, Anya’s blog uses a great sky blue background that instantly caught my eye not to mention the Idolm@ster banner at the top with Takane. On the right side you can find quick links to her top posts, twitter feed and epic tag wall. So if you want a blog that is pleasant on the eyes, you should definitely visit her blog and stay for the fun posts. Who knows maybe you will start building your own Gundam models in the future?

Thoughts: Let me just say that I was extremely disappointed by the fact that the site’s name is Just as Planned and I only saw Light’s smug face once on keikaku’s post about how he ranks anime. I mean, it’s not even on the banner. All joking aside, the site has a pretty good visual balance and isn’t too crowded. The anime tag can be a little broad (since it also contains manga reviews), but other than that, the only thing that really bugged me was the fact that the “commentary” tag is spelt wrong… It probably shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did. The writing more than makes up for it though.

Just as Planned is a site written entirely alone by keikakudoori (as far as I can tell). While some of his (her?) articles can get long-winded, keikaku really covers the material he talks about throughly and he explains his thoughts really well. They’re worth reading if you have the time. He also covers first and final impressions (no episodics), which seems to be the norm for a lot of sites, but he also has a series of experimental watches such as watching Black Rock Shooter backwards or watching Nisemono without audio. Once again, a LOT of thought goes into these. Oh and there’s also a lot of Umineko. Bonus points.

Thoughts: A yuri blog!? Cool! So, where to start … Yuri no Boke, written by a college student named Katherine, is a blog dedicated to all things lesbian-love! Although the main focus seems to be on anime and manga, she also covers live action movies and fanfics. There’s no real “standard” format, the posts seem to cover a large variety of yuri-related things so to get an idea of Katherine’s writing style I read a few anime reviews. She has a very casual and fun, but still very informative way of writing that I enjoyed. If you’re looking for a blog about yuri that’s not super serious and is written by someone who clearly enjoys writing then this is the blog for you! ;D (I really want to watch Red Garden now too …)

Visually the blog is very simple, I believe (and I could be wrong …) that she uses a customized default blogger design. I’m not a big fan of blogger’s layouts, but Katherine makes it work with a soft blue theme and easy navigation. She also includes a TON of links to other yuri related sites which I’m sure will be appreciated by yuri fans!

Thoughts: Definitely a terminal for editorials. It took me forever to find out whose site Terminal anime is because “CPAnime” literally writes everything with “I.” Even his About page. Anyhow… Did I mention that CPAnime writes editorials only? He covers the unique aspect in anime, from Nisemonogatari’s brush scene to Momoka’s diary in Mawaru Penguindrum. CPAnime has an interesting writing style because of this frankness. He goes straight to the point, not even attempting to make his articles unnecessarily long. He also uses words that are understandable for most people, making his articles to be easily understood. I definitely like that straightforward aspect of his.

Terminal Anime has a very plain theme. It has the basic “Fresh & Clean” Wordpess account, with some kind of anime picture as the background. I can’t see the character’s face because my netbook’s screen is too small to see it. I hope that doesn’t happen to those with normal laptops. Heck, is it intentional, to cut the character like that? Anyhow, Terminal Anime’s plain theme looks fine to me, but that’s because I like simple things. Some of the readers will find his theme to be too plain or simple, not to mention how the plain theme makes Terminal Anime looks uninteresting somehow. It would be a pity if people walk away from this terminal just because of the theme, because CPAnime’s articles are articles that should not be missed.

Thoughts: Continuing World is a site run by schnider and right away you can tell that the guy really likes mecha as a LOT of his posts have to do with them (…I had no ideas that there was such thing as a SaiMecha tournament. Consider me informed now). He also does thoughts on a few anime (or in one case, stuff he’d like to see turned into an anime), though minus summarizing the plot. Hell, the site is all about his thoughts and he comments on themes from a few shows and why they’re relevant. …I’ll admit that most of the mecha stuff went over my head, but you can tell that he actually thinks these things through.

Design-wise, the place is kind of plain, but at least no one would ever claim that the place is overcrowded. Things are kind of hard to find too since the site lacks a categories bar or anything differentiating different post genres from one another. Overall though, it seems like a great site for mecha fans or people who like giant robots in general. Fosh, you reading this?

Thoughts: Moving right along with the anime blog Ashitanoanime, a blog owned by Alexander who writes episodic posts on anime. So, what does this blog offer as far as reviews? Alexander’s writing style favors quick and simple posts wrapped around a single screenshot from the episode. While this style might not feed you if you want a deep review, however not everyone out there enjoys sitting through wall-o-text style reviews or walls and walls of screenshots. I liked Alexander’s style of writing, while it is simple I found them to be quite detailed. He also does a post for the week filled with links to all his previous posts for that week in case you missed them or are curious to see how many shows he can balance at once? Oh and he also has reviews by series after they wrap up.

Design wise, the white background is kind of bright on my eyes, but it beats a dark background for some, right? Also, you can find quick links on the right sidebar to find recent posts, archives and various categories. While this blog’s design isn’t mind blowing, I did enjoy that there wasn’t a whole lot of clutter to worry about and who can go wrong with that great looking Homura banner at the top, huh?

Thoughts: At the moment the author of Manga Widget is a little busy, so his posts aren’t released as often as they were a few months ago, but nevertheless this manga oriented blog is a great place for readers looking for a new fix. Unlike the other manga blogs I was able to write about over the past couple weeks for the tourney, which were very shoujo-focused, Widget seems to cover everything from more mature seinen and josei series to shonen and the occasional shoujo. It’s nice to see variety! He has a very precise and professional writing style, which might not necessarily be the most “entertaining” to read, but it’ll definitely give you good insight into the series. I checked out 3 different reviews in all and was very impressed! (I even plan on picking up Sand Chronicles after reading his review, which sounded interesting.)

Manga Widget has a somewhat generic feel to it when it comes to the aesthetics. There’s not too much drawing my attention, but that could be a good thing since it allows the reader to focus on the writing, not a fancy background or something. I love that I don’t have to open a new page to see more posts too. (The banner is nice as well!)

Thoughts: Yaranakya is a relatively new blog, starting up in the summer of last year, and it’s come a long way since those days. So, I took two newer posts and two REALLY old posts and checked them out. (I caved and read some K-ON movie spoilers too. :< NO REGRETS!) As an editorial blog, Yaranakya is very entertaining, I will say I enjoyed his older posts more than the newer ones (of what I read), which is probably because I was more into the shows discussed. One of my favorite aspects of the blog, though, are the occasional posts where Cytrus relates a Japanese idiom to anime. I linked you to the one I liked the most!

Cytrus is a good writer and you should check him out if you get the chance. The blog itself is themed around the color green, one-color background and a simple banner. Overall, easy on the eyes and great for reading in the dark! (A bad habit of mine I suppose …) Easy navigation as well, partially because the blog is still growing.

Thoughts: My last stop for new anime blogs this week brings me to the blog EmptyBlue. A blog owned by feal87 who writes mostly episodic reviews of anime. Feal87’s writing style appears to be a few sentences about his thoughts on the episode filled with some screen caps and some official artwork from the series. Other than the quick style of writing, you can usually find a video clip from the episode as well. I really liked the whole idea including a short clip from the episode; so that instantly caught my attention so he gets an epic high-five for that. Oh and there are several links to VN games with loads of screencaps from them as well.

Design wise HOLY CRAP, I really liked the layout for EmptyBlue and judging by the name you can find a colorful blue background with more blue filling the rest of the blog. While this blog looks very cluttered and super busy, I sort of liked all the side panel information on the left and right side of the blog. You can find links to recent posts, news and screenshots. So, yes I enjoyed the layout along with the different Madoka Magica themed banners that changed with every refresh.

Thoughts: Otakuness is an episodic blog that follows the usual summary/thoughts style of writing, throwing in some pictures as well as an episode rating at the end (which could be good for readers who just want a quick update on how a series is going). What I enjoyed most about the blog is the lengthy thoughts portion, which goes into a lot of detail about the episode. For me, the reviews touch on everything I want to know when reading a review, but everyone looks for different things. Generally speaking they cover characters, setting, plot, production, and add their own personal spin. Overall, a great blog, but my one complaint is that the posts are like one HUGE block of text sometimes. Some breaks between paragraphs would be a lot easier on the eyes!

The design of the blog is one of my favorites so far in the tourney. I love the use of graphics to outline some of their currently airing shows as well as some finished series. Plus, it’s kind of hard to say no to the penguindrum penguin asking me to subscribe! D: Yeah, so check them out if you get the chance!

Thoughts: Yoo, this website, yoooo. I love everything about Kuriousity. Well, not really everything, but hey, as long as it catches the eyes right? And that’s that this site did when I stumbled upon it. Some might don’t like the mix, but I definitely love how the neon pink and the dark blue complete each other. Not too bright, but not too dark either. The banners also look great because the white background of Kuriosity’s gives the colorful banners the freedom to stand out. I even refreshed the pages couple of times just to look at the banners. They’re just normal pictures, but man, they look so good with that white background and that mix of pink and blue. Such perfect combination~

Just like Sequential Ink, Kuriousity is also a site that is dedicated to licensed manga… But with more expertise. Most of the contributors are skilled writers who have enough knowledge and experience in the manga world, such as ANN manga reviewer Lissa Pattillo and manga adapter Shannon Fay. So yeah, everything in Kuriousity screams the word “pro.” Anything manga-involved, from publishing dates to Kickstarter projects, will be in Kuriousity. Because of that though, it will be hard for the readers to find the Review section. Thank god for that Review tab at the top. Maybe I didn’t read the reviews by all of the writers, but I did take a look at some of them. The reviews consist of summaries in-between personal opinions. The negative and positive aspects are always there, balancing out the reviews. While the reviews are informative to save my moneh, they aren’t particularly outstanding or attention-grabbing. Those who like the manga reviews on ANN, especially if they’re Canadians, should definitely check Kuriousity out.

Thoughts: The Anime/Manga Harem Brigade focuses mainly on (you guessed it) the harem genre (…no reverse harems though). Traineroflegend is the only writer and he does things episodically for the most part. However, he forgoes most of the summary and cuts right to the pros and cons of each episode. Great for figuring out why or why not to watch an episode, but he doesn’t always give examples to explain his rationale behind his choices. Of course, no harem is complete without hot girls, so there are also Anime Babe of the Month posts that come out complete with fan art and a non-biased description of the featured girl.

Normally I’d say that the white background is lacking something, but with this site being white all around, it seems to work (minus that gigantic black bar at the bottom of the screen. That kind of seems out of place). Categories are divided by the anime series itself and overall, it has a pretty nice design.

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The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & [email protected].

Thanks for the shout out and brief review, Fosh. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to pull out a win against Continuing World, but thanks for the support. If nothing else this tourney is giving me some good insights on how to improve. ^_^

Thanks for the shout out. And thanks for summing up my blog better then I ever could.

By the way, I’m going to be following your posts on the tourney from now on, because I really like the approach you have. You break down each site and say exactly what they’re about and what they do, use pictures from their sites, and comment on what your opinion on how it’s working. Great job!